By the 1970s, fast food restaurants had moved far beyond novelty. Suburban growth, more highways and more car owners made it easier for chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC to expand. With this growth came menus that offered more variety, pulling in global flavors like tacos, pizza and egg rolls alongside the usual burgers and fries. The design of these places also started to shift. Dining areas became more inviting, with cushioned seating and warmer tones, encouraging families to stick around and eat together instead of just grabbing food to go.
At the same time, casual sit-down restaurants were stepping up their game. Steakhouses and themed family spots offered combo plates, salad bars and hearty meals served with bread baskets or endless refills. Places like Sizzler became known for giving customers a dining experience that felt fuller without being too formal. Some restaurants leaned heavily into decor, turning dinner into more of an outing. These places were part of a social routine, especially for families and people looking to celebrate a birthday or special night out.
Changes in family life also played a part. More women were working outside the home, two-income households were becoming common and long commutes meant less time for home-cooked meals. Restaurants, especially fast food spots, met that demand for quick, reliable food with little wait. And as more people moved into suburban areas, restaurants started catering to drivers, with better parking and drive-thru service becoming standard features. Immigrant communities also influenced American dining by popularizing dishes from Mexico, China, Italy and beyond, shaping menus across both local eateries and national chains.
Check out this collection of pictures showing vintage 1970s restaurant chains — fast food and dine-in — along with some other small-but-iconic eateries. (For more, be sure to check out Do the most popular 80s restaurants still exist today? Find out – and see how they used to look!)
The Magic Pan Creperie food & menu (1978)
Old McDonald’s restaurant exteriors in the 70s
1970s restaurants: On-the-go Californians love their to-go fast food (1972)
Recipes — many spirited away from famous drive-ins and coffee shops — for the hefty hamburgers, tacos, tostadas, hot dogs, dips and drinks that on-the-go Californians have made a way of life
Article by Ruth Conrad Bateman in Woman’s Day (September 1972)
“California is more than a state — it’s a way of life!” A quarter century ago, Genevieve Callahan said it in her California Cook Book, one of the first and best of many books on the so-called California lifestyle.
To describe it in a few words, as many eastern writers attempt to do after a few days of observing our ways with foods, clothes, houses, gardens, and year-round recreation, is, to say the least, gross simplification.
Such words as “colorful,” “unique,” “vivid” and “mobile” certainly do apply, however: as many meals are eaten outdoors as in. And all Californians seem eager to have a go at all the ethnic foods found among our varied peoples.
There are dozens of ethnic groups here, but the ones that have most influenced the cooking and eating habits of every Californian are the Italian, Chinese and French in San Francisco, Armenians in the Fresno area and the Mexican and Japanese in Southern California.
Californians also have a passion for their own products. Practically everything grows in this golden land or swims in its waters. And some of these are found no place else!
Mix this exaggerated bounty, which is available year-round, with the exotic traditions of the ethnic cuisines, add a little homey Yankee or Southern or Middle America cooking, then stir it up with the casual, rather unorthodox freshness that seems to come with living here and you have an idea of what cooking in the California style is all about.
As much as anything, snack foods and refreshments show the Californian’s love of color and high flavor with a minimum of fuss and ceremony.
The following favorites you’ll find everywhere — in hamburger drive-ins and sandwich shops, pizza parlors, coffeehouses and juice bars, walk-up hot-dog and taco stands, on the beach or around the family pool, in the patio or by the television set.
Just any place where wheeling Californians stop for a bite to eat and drink. Though tacos seem to be the “in” food with the young crowd at the moment, as pizzas were a few years back, hamburgers and hot dogs are never out.
Perhaps the most popular hamburger is the patty with an option of cheese melted on top, and a thick glop of Thousand Island (or Russian) dressing on a sesame-seed bun, with pickles and catsup on the side.
Another favorite at drive-ins where teenagers hang out is the double-deck burger — two thin patties in a bun with a third slice of bun in the middle — a hearty mouthful indeed.
Vintage Sambo’s restaurant
SEE MORE: Sambo’s Restaurants: The diner chain’s story – and how it got that controversial name
Arby’s Roast Beef Sandwich restaurant neon sign (1972)
Arby’s fast food restaurant interior & meals (1978)
Barney’s Beanery – Los Angeles restaurant in 1972
Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips vintage fast food restaurants
MORE: Do you remember the old Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips fast food restaurants?
Drive-up Pup n Taco fast food
Vintage Taco Bell from the 70s
ALSO SEE: Vintage Taco Bell restaurants & see what the Mexican fast-food chain used to serve
Shakey’s Pizza Parlor and Ye Public House from 1972
Holly Farms Fried Chicken sign (1972)
Vintage Taco Kid Fiesta Cantina dining room (1970)
Taco Kid eat in or carry out restaurant (1970)
Burger King vintage fast food chain (1976)
MORE: Burger King: The vintage fast food restaurant they once called ‘delightfully different’
Vintage Fiesta Cantina restaurant (1970s)
Flaming Steer restaurant/steak house
Friendly restaurant and selection of food on the menu (1978)
KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant (1978)
ALSO SEE: Vintage KFC: About Colonel Sanders & the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food chain’s history
Zantigo American Mexican fast food (1970s)
A Vintage Next Door restaurant (1973)
MORE: Remembering the old Next Door Restaurant chain from the ’70s
H Salt Seafood Galley take-out restaurant (1976)
Old Pizza Hut dine-in restaurant from the 70s
SEE MORE: Vintage Pizza Hut restaurants & food from the ’70s
Pizza Inn restaurants from the 1970s
Hannahan’s Public Eating House & Fennimore’s vintage restaurant signs (1978)
The Engine House Pizza Co restaurant (1979)
The Crystal Palace Ice Cream Parlour at Marshall Field’s in Chicago (1974)
Disneyland Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
SEE MORE: Do the most popular 80s restaurants still exist today? Find out – and see how they used to look!
2 Responses
I miss Pizza Inn. I remember their “all you can eat” bar with several selections of pizza and other items (similar to the food bar at Pizza Hut).
Enjoyed the article!
Does anyone in Indianapolis IN remember Robys Roast Beef on Lafayeyye Rd . It is now Nicks chile Parlor